REVIEW: Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is the biggest and most powerful Android tablet

A Samsung demonstrated over the years that it knows very well what it is doing when it launches its tablets. As Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra it's no different, and what this product represents could be the future of tablets, mixing portability and a very interesting hybrid system between mobile and notebook. But is it all the thousand wonders? Check it out now in our full review!

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Design

One of the coolest – and even a little scary – things about Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra it's your size. At an incredible 14 inches, this is the largest tablet ever released. Despite being super thin, it is quite heavy, weighing 728g — practically twice as much as Tab S8 conventional. When using it with two hands you don't feel much, but if you need to carry it with just one, it's not something comfortable and this reinforces the device's concept of being used in “notebook mode”.

Its body is all in reinforced aluminum, present in the rear and sides. At the bottom is the DisplayPort-compatible USB-C port and two speakers. On the right side we have the power button and the two volume buttons. At the top, we have two more speakers and three built-in microphones for their length.

The differential of this version of the Galaxy Tab is precisely that it can be used as a notebook, through the keyboard cover — an accessory sold separately. Fortunately, Samsung lent us this cover to test with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra and, in this model, it makes all the difference.

With it you now have a place to store the S Pen, protects your tablet and even gains a much more interesting use of the device. The finish of the accessory is of great quality and is detachable, allowing you to easily choose when to use (or not) the keyboard. The keys are backlit, with a very comfortable touch and come in the American pattern. In addition, we have a good quality touchpad.

I mentioned the S Pen and yes, it already comes in the S8 Ultra box. I think it's a mistake not to have an internal housing for it in the tablet, as it happens in the Galaxy S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra smartphones, and relying on a cover to stay safe. In the box, in addition to the tablet and S Pen, we only have a 15W charger, very weak, considering the giant battery of the device.

Fabric

When we talk about Samsung and screen in the same sentence, we can expect good specifications and this is repeated here. The display is 14,6 inches with very thin edges (about 90% of the front of the device is the screen), with Super AMOLED technology, 120 Hz refresh rate and HDR10 +, in addition to protection Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The fingerprint unlock sensor is under the screen, with quick responses.

The 4K resolution (2960×1848 pixels) makes all the difference here and delivers an excellent level of detail for this screen size. Consuming any type of media here becomes something special thanks to the technologies used and its size.

In summary, whether reading on the timeline of your favorite social network or leisure time with movies and games, the combination of brightness, contrast and vivid colors will make your jaw drop. In addition, having a giant screen, there is more space and practicality to take notes and drawings with the S Pen.

Performance

As it is a premium tablet, it was to be expected that the chipset here would be the most current. The chosen one of the time was the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 from 4nm. If you wondered why not Gen 2, present on the line Galaxy S23, it is because the product debuted in April 2022, and arrived in Brazil with a delay of more than a year. That is, it has the best chipset in Qualcomm thought for the year 2022. For that year, let's wait for the Tab S9 Ultra, which should appear in the Galaxy Unpacked this month of July, in South Korea.

Going back to the other specifications, it has an incredible 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of standard UFS 3.1 storage. If that wasn't enough, you can still use up to 8GB of storage for the RAMPlus, giving even more fluidity in the device. In practical tests, what I noticed is how easy it is to open and run any app thanks to its power. In addition, due to its big screen and the help of the S Pen, editing photos and videos on this little toy becomes a much more pleasant experience than on smartphones or smaller tablets.

As powerful as the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra that is, understanding its concept and purpose is extremely important. The tablet is great to use at the table for photo and video edits and for media consumption or drawing with the S Pen. Despite these benefits, games offer a very poor experience, not because of the performance itself, but because of their giant size. Everything gets too big and the precision of the actions becomes something much less attractive.

If you're a more casual gamer, just playing simpler games that don't require so much precision, or card games, or strategy, then, yes, you can benefit here. In addition, many games do not adapt to the horizontal pattern of tablets, forcing them to use a 14″ screen vertically, something very uncomfortable when playing.

No AnTuTU Benchmark, the results were great, reaching an incredible 1065035 points. That was that moment where the device warmed up, but nothing out of the ordinary, proving that even under high levels of stress, it will handle everything.

Battery

Are 11200 mAh of battery in what we call the biggest tablet ever released. That means you'll be able to use it for work, study, play and a few other things quietly during the day and you'll still have battery left for the next day.

In my tests, even forcing its use to the maximum, I got good 2 or 3 days of battery performance, something excellent for the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. AS Pen also has a battery to work with bluetooth functions and for that, it charges magnetically when placed on the back of the tablet, next to the cameras.

About recharging the tablet, I was able to use the speed of 45W with the chargers I have at home and in this case, it reached 100% in about 1 hour and a half, an excellent time. With a 15W charger this time should increase a little. Anyway, this is a topic that pleases everyone, after all, who doesn't want more battery life, right?

DeX mode and keyboard

Unlike any other Samsung tablet we have on the market, buying one Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra without its keyboard cover makes your experience incomplete, as the mode DeX it will be badly used. You can even use it on touch, but it doesn't compare to using it with a physical keyboard and touchpad.

Particularly I was very curious to test this device since I saw your ad, because I thought it could replace my notebook, but unfortunately it is not possible yet. As much as the system tries, there is still a lack of gesture optimizations and an adaptation of Android apps to work as if they were desktop programs.

O DeX itself is really cool and brings all the aesthetics of a desktop. The problem is in use, especially if you're already used to day-to-day operating systems for desktops and notebooks like Windows, for example. There are rare cases where you use one page at a time, without splitting the screen or anything like that.

So when apps are all limited by their base smartphone versions, the experience is completely lost here. Google Chrome or any other browser does not allow using more than one tab at the same time, and dividing the apps into two screens is super annoying to do and many of them do not adapt to the DeX screen, making it impossible to be something natural and looking like something experimental.

Another problem is the question of the base of the keyboard cover. As it is not solid like a notebook, we only rely on an “ear” of the cover that can be pulled on the back. This ear evens out the height of the tablet and works great on flat surfaces like your desk, but it sucks on your lap as it's not very secure.

In short, DeX is still king when it comes to turning a tablet or cell phone into a portable PC. The real problem here is that we don't have enough app and system development for this kind of experience, so the device often feels like an incomplete product. Maybe in a few years, in the next versions of the Galaxy Tab, we will have the perfect combination between OneUI e Android.

S Pen

What would a high-end Galaxy Tab be without the S Pen, right? The model chosen here is the most advanced I've tested to date, working not only as a pen for drawing and taking notes, but also as an accessory to help with presentations, take pictures and even control your music. All this without having to touch the screen, just with very precise gestures.

When using Power point, for example, I can simply click the pen key once to go to the next slide, or twice to go back to the previous one. In songs, in addition to clicking the button to pause and play, or two taps to fast forward, you can also press and hold the button and then make an up or down gesture. This causes the volume to increase or decrease.

In supported apps, you can also draw a circle to the right or left to increase or decrease the screen size and so on. AS Pen here brings a different experience to the tablet and because it's bluetooth, it allows you to mirror the device's screen on a TV or monitor and use it as a super useful remote control in those moments.

Unfortunately, I don't have natural talent for drawing and until then I didn't study the subject, so I didn't venture into this area. What I can point out here is that the pen is super accurate and guarantees excellent sensitivity for those looking for or needing to work in the field of digital art or graphic design. However, the only advantage at this point compared to the other two models would be the screen size, as all the benefits of the S Pen extend to either version.

Audio

O Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra it's a great piece of equipment to accompany you on your musical adventures. The four speakers AKG with certification Dolby Atmos guarantee a loud and clear sound in any kind of music. Not only that, but you don't feel any kind of distortion even when at maximum volume.

So, if you like to use the tablet as a music partner at the office, for example, it will work perfectly and keep you immersed in the music, even without headphones. But if you want to use headphones, it has Bluetooth 5.2 and if you use headphones from the line Galaxy Buds, the connection is even better and more practical.

I know it has become a standard — bad — but I think this device in particular should come with a 3.5mm headphone jack, after all it simulates a work environment and bluetooth headphones are not always the most suitable.

Cameras

Tablet cameras are not usually — nor should they be — the best on the market, but they should guarantee the minimum quality for you to enjoy good video calls, at least. O Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra opted for exaggeration here and has two front and two rear cameras, but was this a good choice? Let's go to the details!

Frontal camera

The choice to make a double set of cameras on the front of the tablet is a great one, mainly because of the proposal to simulate a PC when accompanied by the keyboard cover. The main camera is 13MP in Wide standard and f / 2.0 aperture. The second is a 6MP Ultrawide with an aperture of f/2.2 and serves only to complement video calls.

In photos, the results don't impress, but they don't disappoint either. It's something you'd expect from a camera in the tablet category, doing a good job in the right conditions. The colors are good and the light capture is also nice, but the details are very low and tend to make you blurry. In videos, you can record up to 4K at 60 frames per second.

But video calling is where these cameras excel. Using Google Meet as an example, the image turned out great and managed to achieve the proposal of delivering good video quality for the business world. My only gripe is that I didn't find any option to switch between cameras during calls, leaving the dual-camera option a bit useless in those uses.

Back camera

The rear set follows with specifications very similar to the front, with the main camera being a 13MP Wide, with an aperture of f / 2.0. The secondary lens is a 6 MP Ultrawide with f/2.2 aperture.

These lenses allow you to record good times in places with good light, but it doesn't go beyond that - and that's good. I don't want to imagine a world where tablets are used as cameras in a natural way. However, if necessary, you won't be left in the lurch and can get good information and good colors.

You can also record at up to 4K60 on the back, but I believe that in video calls they are not the highlight. It's nice to have cameras for times of need here, let alone a good flash, but it's far from the most important part of the product and I'm grateful for that.

Conclusion and price

O Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is arguably the most powerful Android tablet released to date. Its construction is impeccable, its screen has high fidelity colors and OneUI keeps getting better. However, Samsung's mix of ideas with the Android system is still not 100% and it's super frustrating trying to open an app in DeX mode and it just doesn't fit right on the screen because it's not properly adapted for that type of use.

Using it in more everyday functions in text or presentation apps requires learning due to the international standard keyboard, but it is a great accessory. The real problem with this experience is that its base doesn't convey any confidence when using the tablet away from the table. If the idea is to simulate the experience of a small notebook, you will be limited to supporting it on flat surfaces.

Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the keyboard cover is not included in the package and without it this product loses part of its purpose, after all it is too big for common use as a tablet. O Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra can be found at Fast shop currently by R$6.999,00 in sight on PIX. Its official keyboard cover can be purchased at Magazine Luiza by amazing and salty R $ 2.999,00.

This tablet is far from being suitable for everyone and goes against that idea. If you're looking for a tablet that's just as good and will probably better serve your needs as a tablet, focus on the common version of Galaxy Tab S8 — we even have a full review of this model too — or the S7 FE, the latter an excellent choice for anyone looking for a hybrid between performance and cost-effectiveness.

Technical specifications

reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 20 / 7 / 23.